Why lawyers must take to writing
Published on: 2 May 2021, 06:30 am
Recalling a recent memorable visit from a young lawyer that made him reminisce about how he began writing, JUSTICE YATINDRA SINGH writes about how writing has helped him with his lawyering, advises lawyers to take up to writing, and shares the rules for writing that he follows.
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I LIVE alone in Noida: my wife and son are on university faculties at different places. Sometimes, it causes me loneliness and depression. But life does brighten up, as it did recently, when a young lawyer came over for a courtesy call.
The young man had, after graduating from law school, completed a clerkship for a Supreme Court judge, and just entered the litigation world. The reason for the visit was an emotional one.
When he had entered law school, his grandfather, who had been a Hindi school teacher, presented him his first law book titled 'A Lawyer's World And Childhood Dreams', which is the first book I had authored. He told me that he had read it with fascination; keeps it on his table; and was inspired by it.
Unfortunately, his grandfather was no more. That day was his barsi ['first death anniversary']. The young man wanted my signature on his copy of the book.
He had the first edition of my book. The copy was not in a good condition: it seemed to have had gone through several hands, or the same hands many times, due to how worn and marked it was. I presented him with a copy of the second edition of the book that has a few more articles, signed it, and wished him success.
We spent some hours together, talking about myriad topics such as his journey thus far, the books he should read, the verbosity of Indian legal judgments, court pleadings and written submissions.
He remarked it must have required me great effort to write the book. This took me down memory lane and made me reminisce about why I started writing and how it helped me in the profession.
How writing helped me
There are issues that I am passionate about. Earlier in life, I found that the best way to express my feelings or even register my protest about these issues was through writing.